I Built A Cheap Satellite Tracking System From Spare Parts

This is a project I've been working on for a while: automated satellite tracking! The system uses an old security camera pan/tilt mount to aim a small parabolic dish. It's run by an Arduino microcontroller, I think this is the first time I've actually tried one of those for anything useful! The system can be controlled from standard ham radio software like Gpredict or Satdump.
I based much of this project on the SARCNet rotator Mk1, found here: www.sarcnet.or...
Instead of the Aptinex Tricac board, I'm using four 5v relays:
amzn.to/3TokZ1g
The PTZ mount is a Pelco unit I got from Ax-Man Surplus. I actually found most of the parts for this project at Ax-Man, you can find them here: www.ax-man.com/
I'm also using this sensor module:
amzn.to/48COTDu
I use a software-defined radio to listen to the satellite transmissions:
amzn.to/3TolB74
And I have a SAWbird+GOES filter/amplifier on the antenna feed to maximize the signal from L-band satellites (~1.7ghz).
amzn.to/4bXZgEZ
(Buying from the Amazon links gives me a small commission and doesn't cost you any extra! It's a great way to support content like this!)
The dish is a surplus 5.8ghz Wireless network antenna that another ham gave me. The feed is a helical L-band design based on this: sgcderek.githu...
Software I'm using includes:
Gpredict: sourceforge.ne...
SDR++: www.sdrpp.org/
SatDump: www.satdump.org/
This system could easily be modified for Hamsat / Cubesat use with other antennas. I have a few old security camera mounts around, so I'll probably modify another one in the future to have 2m/70cm antennas for Amsat / space station repeater operation.
It could also be used as a small radio telescope, basically a step up from the Tailgater and Carryout telescopes I've been playing with ( • Hacking Portable Satel... )
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Or support me via Patreon at / saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at www.amazon.com...

[@MolsonCnM]

I will not be surprised when we find out that he actually owns Ax-Man Surplus and this has all been a clever advertising campaign!

[@JamesHalfHorse]

He gets to haul home cool junk they get free advertising. If I am ever that side of the country I would like to stop there. Can easily spend the day and load up a truck at places like that. Unfortunately there aren't any around here.

[@PhillipRhodes]

If so, it's working, as I'm thinking about moving from NC to somewhere in the Twin Cities area just to be close to Axman!

[@1islam1]

​@@JamesHalfHorse🔴 What Is Islam? 🔴 Islam is not just another religion. 🔵 It is the same message preached by Moses, Jesus and Abraham. 🔴 Islam literally means ‘submission to God’ and it teaches us to have a direct relationship with God. 🔵 It reminds us that since God created us, no one should be worshipped except God alone. 🔴 It also teaches that God is nothing like a human being or like anything that we can imagine. 🌍 The concept of God is summarized in the Quran as: 📖 { “Say, He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”} (Quran 112:1-4) 📚 🔴 Becoming a Muslim is not turning your back to Jesus. 🔵 Rather it’s going back to the original teachings of Jesus and obeying him. More .....👇 🔴 THE RETURN OF JESUS

[@axmanemployees8409]

oh, no - we just like him, his channel, and all of the interesting uses he finds for our stuff

[@BillAnt]

This guy looks like Abraham Lincoln's great great great nephew. :D :D

[@hightechreviewstv]

"All my screwdrivers are bent for some reason" proceeds to use it as a prying tool.

[@SRQmoviemaker]

Hammers and prying tools are never hammers or prying tools.

[@kevinleee3408]

Same screwdrivers are chisels wrenches are hammers and hammers are keys

[@kevinleee3408]

That camera housing would be great for a high-powered laser mounted on a turret

[@dcfuksurmom]

@@kevinleee3408don't let styropyro see this comment lol

[@jasonwise6722]

just love the "quick disconnect" zip assembly

[@coreyrobinson9010]

"And I said yes, sign me up for giant... trash." Oh man are we alike. That made me literally laugh out loud. Been so fun watching your channel.

[@DadofScience]

I've had to make the rule "Only if I have a project for it now" to slow the influx of useful and fun junk into the shed. At the rate I was going I would have had no space left to work in!

[@coreyrobinson9010]

@@DadofScience Thats a good tactic! My old job changed facilities and gave away a ton of stuff... wish I had applied this line of thinking at that time🤣

[@RardSFX]

Something I love about the US, their thrift/surplus stores seem to have everything. I would love something like Axman in the UK but I fear my house/garage would start looking more like yours than it already does. Great channel for a super niche interest. This is what KZbin should be.

[@SatansPooper]

I like this kid. He looks like a lovechild of Wolverine and Jack Black and isn't afraid of failure. Keep up making the good content Bub.

[@xxepic_swag_gamingxx5238]

“Bub” you are fucking weird

[@yatooma25]

Ferrules are an absolute game changer when it comes to getting wires into those little screw terminals! I bought a pack on Amazon that includes the crimping tool for relatively cheap. Definitely worth checking out for future projects!

[@KyleQuamme]

I second using ferrules next time. Came to the comments to specifically mention this!

[@matthewellisor5835]

Here to comment the same so count me third.

[@mrcomment5544]

tinning them is great too but takes time

[@coltoneverett5074]

If you don’t have any ferrules i have in the past I have soldered the end of the wires to keep them from fraying

[@videotrexx]

@@coltoneverett5074 yeah, and that's called tinning, like mrcomment5544 stated an hour before your comment.

[@robertbauer6723]

"Is this all hacky and amateurish? Yes" But it's also a very clever bit of ingenuity!

[@seanyem]

Fantastic Job, The serial USB disconnecting is probably due to the spark noise from the relays that are being triggered so rapidly. This would be eliminated by using FETs, Well H Bridge. You could get an Arduino MEGA for more digital pins or opt for an LCD that is SPI or I2C. You used a convertor, but the screen's are pretty cheap online. You should mount 2 cameras, 1 on the dish, 1 facing the whole rig, then livestream it once it's all working. I would watch it for hours. Can't wait for the automated dish pointer for that massive dish from the TV station. You might need to add a few more chilli's to that extra spicy ethernet for that big dish. Much love and geekery! 🤓 ❤

[@coreybabcock2025]

I was thinking the same thing those relays are not good for something like this he should use a mosfet boards to run the motors

[@zyeborm]

H bridge won't work with AC motors

[@vannoo67]

You said pretty much everything I was going to, except for opto-isolation. The original project used an opto-isolated driver for a very good reason, to prevent noise from the motor side messing with the digital side. (The arduino is crashing because of this noise.)

[@bornach]

​@@zyebormGood point. Solid state relays would be more suitable.

[@bornach]

​​​@@vannoo67The relay block shown at 11:23 should already provide optoisolation for the microcontrollers, if those 4 pin black squares are what i think they are. But the individual relay modules he swapped them for I didn't get a good enough view at 14:00 to see if they had optoisolators, transistor drivers, and flyback diode. If they were just bare relays, I assume he would have had to replicate the driver circuit that was on the under-spec relay block

[@Mhornfeck72205]

You should look into swapping those mechanical relay boards out for DC solid-state versions that uses mosfets instead. You are probably getting a lot of emf noise from the constant clickity-clacking of the relay contacts and magnetic coil charging/discharging, which could be responsible for your random serial communication issues. I experienced a similar problem on my CNC build where the flood coolant relay would occasionally cause the usb connection to cut out if the coolant turned off, and I would need to power cycle the electronics to allow it to reconnect to the computer again. Also, if you hate screw terminals, you need to try crimping on some wire ferrules. I wish I learned about their existence so much sooner. The chance of having a ferruled wire break off or fall out is reduced to basically zero.

[@mrcomment5544]

CS128

[@Peter_S_]

Yes! 🏆 I did a project using very similar Pelco pan-tilt heads in the 1990s and your comment reminded me of the problems we had trying to use relays to control the motors. The pan-tilt mechanism was being controlled by a small network I/O node and every time a motor stopped there was a chance the node would reboot. It was quite a pain and MOSFETs were the solution.

[@lbgstzockt8493]

He could also use shielded cable (expensive, unwieldly) or twist the wires (no the best shielding) to improve noise. Or just use solid state components like the 21st century engineer he is.

[@Peter_S_]

@@lbgstzockt8493 The issue is inductive kickback from the DC motors being directly conducted by the power rails into the control electronics. Lead dress won't help unfortunately. I was able to calm it with two approaches together. One was to add small caps to the SSR MOSFET gates so that they would spend a little time traversing the linear region as the motor turned off and that also requires a guard time between switching motor directions. The second was to add Transzorb bidirectional TVS diodes with a series ballast resistor of several ohms across the motors which more or less clamped anything over the 24 V working voltage to less disruptive levels.

[@wd8bdn]

@@lbgstzockt8493 maybe some clamp on ferrites?

[@PU7MZD]

10:01 We have officially entered the "saveitforparts screen recording" age. I'm gonna miss the camera-pointing-to-screen age. Also, the project turned out really nice. I can not wait for the bigger version in the geodesic dome. Another step towards SSP (saveitforparts space program)!

[@saveitforparts]

I finally have OBS working, but sometimes it's still more convenient to just aim the camera at the screen 😂

[@PHUSHEY]

Can't believe I'm working on this same project but somehow the older I get, the longer it takes me to finish projects. You must never sleep dude..... great video.

[@highseassailor]

"Extra spicy ethernet" Giggle giggle. Forgetting to patch the wiring harness through the appropriate holes nefore soldering, you are well on your way to being a top notch electronics technician! The fact you remembered to put the heat shrink on in the right place is a great start! You're humility and positive personality are a pleasant addition to the journey. Thank you, and thanks to AxMan, too!

[@RardSFX]

Something I love about the US, their thrift/surplus stores seem to have everything. I would love something like Axman in the UK but I fear my house would start looking more like yours than it already does. Great channel for a super niche interest.

[@stabthefreak]

Good to see that camera got used! I'm actually the person who brought it to Ax Man, I was working at Mobile Pro Systems and the IT guy offered me that camera because it wss otherwise gonna be junked, I'm stoked it got a new home! I know it sat there behind the counter for a few months taking up space, ha

[@saveitforparts]

Awesome! Thanks for bringing it in! I wasn't able to use all the parts from it, but the Pan/Tilt mechanism is great!

[@Nice_Lamantin]

I love that folks at Ax-Man at this point just know you well and give you stuff because they know it will come in handy for your experiments

[@bazzaar1869]

Wow! this is a major accomplishment! Its just so cool to have hardware tracking of satellites. Well done.

[@lawrenceharris7717]

Triac module is basic all part of an ac relay. It switches at the zero crossing so reduces switching noise due to inductive feedback.

[@a.dudeman7715]

As someone who works with industrial automation... I feel you on the screw terminals. Though I will say, a lot of it is technique. Don't strip your wires too long, and tin the exposed strands if you can.

[@medienmond]

There are I2C adapter boards (If i remember correctly from digole) for driving these LCD displays, that you can solder on the back of the display and then drive the whole thing with SDA and SCK (2 wires) of your arduino with existing libraries to very simply pu out some information. They are also configureable for different types of LCD.

[@hightechreviewstv]

I honestly love this channel! Best find in 2024.

[@mr.shellyisaidshelly370]

For issue with running out of gpio pin outs, you can get arduino hats that can expand the amount things that you attach to it. I do not know much about them, but I would recommend checking them out! Good luck 👍

[@mnoxman]

Hello from Mounds view. Linear actuator is DC powered and is reversible based on the polarity applied. That might be the one I saw in the Fridley Axe Man several years ago. For the screw terminals the best advice I can give is use the ferules.

[@saveitforparts]

Yep that was from Fridley! They still have a few.

[@SoloSailing77]

The first satellite dish I installed, weighed 600+ pounds and needed a small dish crane to lift it onto the pole. That was in 1983. My Dad was the second satellite dealer in Michigan. I am gonna have to start experimenting! This looks very intriguing! Keep up the great work! Wish I had some old parts, but I moved a few times since then. Moving piles of parts, didn't make any sense at the time! Now I am kicking myself!

[@LordGooben]

Great vid, for the screw terminal blocks I would look at getting a Ferrule Crimping Tool Set that will take the headache away from the wire getting frayed

[@bcadventure2015]

You just became my new favourite human when you looked up at the camera and said “it wouldn’t be the save it parts channel without zip ties, duct tape and hot glue” lmao

[@DrLazurus]

now you just need that weatherproof dome over your dishes !

[@martinlatvian5538]

Huge sphere made of plastic tubing and wrapped around with lots of food wrap 😂

[@DrLazurus]

maybe a surplus parachute could work too !

[@nightbutchers]

Didn't he get one last year

[@DavidRickard1]

Loving this project. Totally agree about things being able to be opened and messed about with. Too much electronic stuff going to landfill these days, it's criminal!

[@ChrisCrewdson]

"extra spicy ethernet" 😂

[@BigSneakySnake]

For the 1602 lcd, they make i2c interface boards that work very conveniently with the arduino using just a few pins.

[@maxmustermann5623]

Love your videos! Kinda reminds me of times gone by when KZbin still was fun and full of creators doing this gig just for fun and to entertain. I am looking forward for all the videos to come, keep up the good work!

[@freeebord]

Seriously, love your channel dude I found it randomly the other day in recommended feed, I’m super excited to see what else you put out over the next few months

[@karcinogen]

Love this channel, I have four of those old CCTV cameras I acquired from an abandoned bowling alley, would love to tinker around with them and see if I can get them working one day. Cheers

[@iamjessieray]

Tip for reading small lettering on electronics, cameras on most modern phones are really good at taking pictures of small things.

[@AAT30-90]

Heads-up on those Pelco PTZ units - they a have sizeable capacitor inside that is prone to failure after about 10 years.

[@coreybabcock2025]

Electrolytic cap ?

[@AAT30-90]

Yep. When he takes off the housing, you can see it behind the motors. They were usually yellow from the factory, but because the one in his was blue, maybe it was replaced/upgraded in the past.

[@systemdrive7970]

You finally did it! Great job!

[@patchvonbraun]

Keep in mind that for motor loads, even through a relay, there will be some inductive kick-back through the relay contacts and THEN into the coil. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem with relays. But if you think of them as a transformer, with a single winding on the contact side, and the coil on the other side, you can get some impressive ground currents on the coil side of the relay, impressed on the USB bus. Been there, chewed my arm off to get it to stop doing that... I ended up building a "dual polarity" snubber for the motor, and that finally took care of it...

[@spookysammy7245]

Very impressive results! The image corruption at the top and bottom is due to LOS interference when the antenna reaches lower elevations. Your spot is not ideal for a LEO ground station - find an open field with no trees. Also keep in mind that your antenna will have difficulty with high elevation passes that are directly overhead. Otherwise you basically nailed it and built a ground station out of spare junk which is something not even Macguyer could do.

[@saveitforparts]

Eventually I'll try this out at Sandland on the hilltop, once we have the geodesic dome assembled :-D

[@coreybabcock2025]

​@@saveitforpartsif I ever come to your area I definitely would love to meet you and check out your projects and talk shop your have more knowledge than I do though

[@mattparker9726]

12:51 OH YEAH! Me too! Also, on soldering wires, pre solder the wires. Makes everything a lot easier, if you're soldering things like surface mount parts, flux is your friend.

[@crackthefoundation_]

Once I lived in a house that had one of those dial controllers wired in. They had gotten rid of the dish/antenna before I lived there so I never got to screw around with it. It was almost as old looking as that one you showed

[@patchvonbraun]

Kinda neat that you're getting your tiny-dish motion-control system working at roughly the same time as we're getting the system for the 12.8m working.

[@saveitforparts]

I'm enjoying your progress as well 😄

[@Peter_S_]

Wild! If you replace the dish in the starting scene with a video camera and use the same Pelco pan-tilt mechanism you have something very similar to the original authoring systems for what became Quicktime VR which is a direct ancestor of Google Street View images.

[@patchvonbraun]

For manual control at the observatory, we're going to use USB game controllers -- inexpensive ones, but already the right kind of form-factor, etc.

[@TSGEnt]

3:00 "sign me up for giant trash!" That made laugh out loud. Thank you.. 5:57 ...for some strange reason. (prys with screwdriver) Love it! The trader joes jar lid as reflector is epic! I love it. The stickers? Definatly give it a pro/official look. Thank you for letting us come along on your journey. It is inspiring. I just wish we had an Axe-Man or equiv electronics surplus here in Waco TX. Maybe we do. I just haven't found it. Lot's of trailer companies and hay bailing equipment tho'.

[@Ziraya0]

The main meaningful difference between the triac driver they call for and a relay is that triacs turn on when you pulse them and stay on until the AC voltage crosses zero, this greatly reduces EMI vs cutting off the AC wave at any other voltage. At the zero crossing there's no potential, where at any other voltage the suddenly blocked potential will ring as it tries to find somewhere to be, like Wile E. Coyote vibrating after running face first into a mural. The secondary (arguable) difference is that the relay will only be on during the control pulse so it will drive slower and with less torque than the motors are capable of; if you have a variable for pulse width/length, increasing that will help performance but will also change the EMI in some way, not sure which. You should be able to use another triac but there are some specs that matter and I'm not that familiar with triacs. It does seem like you're having EMI problems, I can't tell from the video, is the motor mount's frame grounded? I also don't know antennas, would it be fine to ground it? That will keep in more of the motor interference

[@neilfoster814]

Gabe, you are the "Fix it, build it" best friend that everyone needs in their life! My yard also has lots of temporary, on test things like antennas, GPS stuff etc. Awesome stuff.

[@JonnyWaldes]

Friggin sweet! I love the funky noises the relays make. Sounds like ancient computer.

[@vasilivladivostok1136]

This is an extraordinary upgrade, the ability to stick this up on a pole and weather sealing the gear would be amazing.

[@bioboi4438]

This was an awesome project, quite inspiring to do something similar!

[@Woffy.]

Another can of worms wrangling the digital pixies, Those old CCTV camera mounts are fairly powerful and should easily drive a dish three times that size. Like any kit in the wind avoid slop in the system, make sure worm gears mesh is moderately tight with no backlash or the gears will wear. If you find a spot on the grown gear that is worn you can usually turn it 120 degrees to avoid the worn section. Great project.

[@WashingtonFernandes]

One of the best KZbin channels for sure, you have inspired me into radio hacking, recently I've being trying to make a notebook wifi antena into a FM radio, a lot more coding then anything else but a lot of fun.

[@Globss]

Always a good day when a new saveitforparts video comes out

[@BrokenCircuitRanch]

Need H bridge for the motors, SPI converter for the LCD's Real serial from the arduino instead of USB. should resolve the problems and make it more reliable.

[@zyeborm]

He has AC motors a H bridge won't work at all. It's probably cheaper to get an I2C oled than a spi converter for the lcd and the usb connection should be stable for more than 5 minutes. There's something quite wrong for that to be failing all the time. That "real serial" is going to go into a usb > serial chip to get into his laptop anyway, might as well use the one on the arduino board.

[@BrokenCircuitRanch]

@@zyebormOLED is going to limit screen size to .96 inch, or so and cost about the same as the spi converter, USB is limited on length, and the switching of the DC relays is causing the Arduino USB line to become noisy. rs232 is a bit more noise immune to those problems than usb and why 232 or 485 is typically still used in industrial settings. And if he puts this outside at a distance when its snowing do you really expect him to run 100' of USB cable out there with repeaters along the way?

[@zyeborm]

@@BrokenCircuitRanch if he wants to run a hundred feet away in the snow he has many more issues to solve. There are also many more than 0.96" OLEDs available I suggest he gets the first version working reliable before trying to build the ultimate version. Also, his SDR is USB at the focal point anyway.

[@BrokenCircuitRanch]

@@zyebormthere could be other issues indeed. like his SDR, he could run LMR400. Once you go past the .96 oled displays the price point difference between the oled and spi converter is null. Maybe, just maybe, he wants something big and readable and utilize the hardware he has. These are merely suggestions. he can ultimately do what he wants. its his projects.

[@bornach]

​@@zyebormFor AC motors he'd need the components that were on the Aptinex 4 channel opto-isolated triac module. Wonder if the local Axman stocks BT-139 triacs. He could probably just use any optocoupler with it

[@Gunbudder]

12:13 honestly, for outdoor use i think using a physical crimp with self gluing heat shrink is better than using solder with self gluing shrink. the solder joint can crack with movement as the joint gets older whereas the physical crimped joint will never crack. its the reason why all car connections are crimped with almost no exceptions; the constant movement and vibration is death for soldered splices. its just one of those things that may fail in the future and you will waste a lot of time figuring out that its the solder joint inside of the heat shrink on the cable

[@mikeselectricstuff]

13:05 use bootlace ferrules to make putting wires into terminal blocks much easier and neater

[@JamesHalfHorse]

Just introduced another broadcast engineer I work with to your channel. He is a satellite fan too. Ironically enough we were discussing dish tracking systems today. Get a wire ferrule crimper and ends. It will put little pins on the ends of the wires and give you something solid for the screw terminals to bite into.

[@Pertinacissimus]

Man, I really need an Ax-Man in my city

[@charlesurrea1451]

You may want to monitor the current draw on those motors. Really is a good indicator when they start getting tired

[@joels7605]

This is great. Try calling local communications/IT/cabling companies. They've given me boxes of offcuts of shielded cable. It's all good stuff, but the quantities are too small to be economical to bring to a job. Shielded cables are great.

[@infecta42]

I don't understand satellite tech but even as a person that messes with electronics from time to time this was a great watch. keep it up!

[@PhonePhreak3z]

I'm so glad I found this channel. And thanks for making this channel and it's content.

[@crackthefoundation_]

This is amazing content dude, keep doing it and I dont see why you couldnt get up to 250-350k subs (not to put an upper limit on it but just sayin you deserve at least 250) also more in-detail videos tech-wise will not hurt, don't be afraid to dive deeper sometimes

[@Travelinmatt1976]

This has been one of my dreams, to have a satellite tracker that just automatically downloads satellites as they come by

[@aquahoodjd]

That's super awesome I'm really glad that worked out for you!

[@daviniusb6798]

I think you forgot the Flyback diodes for the relais, and that's what keeps your arduino resetting time after time. Great video, love your tinkering!

[@whitenorthstar]

GREAT SCOTT...1.21 GIGAWATTS! I'd so love to get a rummage around your workshop! Great vids!

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing your knowledge. I just got into radios and found your channel under recommended.

[@JonW77]

Hi, another great video! Bit of a tip for the arduino resetting. Instead of providing it with power via the USB, feed it a separate 1 or 2 amp power supply. Chances are if it's a cheap Chinese knock off that the onboard voltage regulator (or some part of that circuit) is overheating, resetting and loosing you your connection. Also you might want to consider a few small vents and maybe a small fan for some air movement, depending on how hot the weather you guys get is?

[@ernestgalvan9037]

… those boxes he showed for the Arduino are all the Good Ones, from Italy. Top-shelf stuff. Also, the logos on the boards themselves are the Good Ones. (Good Ones, being from the actual Arduino Factory in Italy.)

[@sharkey086]

Very cool, I remember working with similar pelco units. The dome ones can be "fun" to diagnose.

[@hotairfred]

I have almost the same parts you have assembled to put together a moon tracking rotator. My plan is to hang a 15 foot 2m yagi on it for moonbounce. I was trying the K3NG arduino software but was unable to calibrate my accelerometer and then sort of shelved it until I could find time to mess with it again. Your project has inspired me. I will follow your example and try this out with the SARCnet arduino code. Thanks for the video!

[@jessederue1418]

electroboom, saveitforparts, styropro, and backyard scientist collab would be really cool

[@hoov100]

That thing is sweet, super jelly you have easy access to electronic surplus!

[@ernestgalvan9037]

BTW, a dish antenna is also a ‘directional’ antenna.. the other antenna you are referring to is specifically a ‘yagi’ antenna. For a yagi, broadly speaking, the more elements, the more ‘directional’ it is. And for each specific frequency, it has one reflector element, and one or more director elements.

[@QuaabQueb]

Fun fact: that black pan/tilt mount was actually one of the first pan/tilt system on the market from Pelco. This was before the age of an all in one PTZ camera assembly like you would see today. Some are so small now they fit in your hand. It would have had it's own large dome housing. Typically they were used indoors. Ether hanging on a mount, or installed through a ceiling. They are absolutely massive. It was called the "Harris" dome named after Jim Harris sheet metal department manager who developed and designed the housing outside normal working hours on his own time. Later they came out with the "intercept" dome which was a more compact version, but basically the same thing. Still a rudimentary pan tilt assembly that you would plop a box camera and lens combo in. Later they would go on to develop the "Spectra" dome series which was the iPhone of PTZ cameras. A compact, all in one, dedicated PTZ camera unit. Just about any ptz camera you have seen is probably a Pelco camera. The white pan/tilt head came in several diffident flavours, they had a small light duty one for indoor use all the way up to an industrial explosion proof model for industrial applications. The most common use for the one you have there was traffic cameras. There are still plenty of them out there in service today. It's designed to be mounted on a pole 100' feet up in the air to resists wind, rain and vibration. All of Pelco's equipment was proudly manufactured in the USA, it was a really cool company, unlike no other. They put pride, quality and customer service at the top. It eventually got bought out by Schneider electric who gutted the company to a shell of it's former glory. They laid off a bunch of life long wonders and sent manufacturing over seas. Today Motorola bought it and they continue to innovate new products.

[@saveitforparts]

Interesting history, thanks! I didn't know that much detail about the company.

[@MrMins15]

Looks like everyone suggested what I was going to say (I2C display, solid state relays, ferrules yada yada). One thing I might add to that is to look for a crimper and die for MTA connectors. They're pretty expensive new so if you happen to find one at ax man, definitely pick it up. I use MTA100 and 150s all the time at work since making a connector is dead easy with them; plus they're keyed so you won't have to guess which way the connector goes in.

[@Gratussi]

I've watched your videos for a while now and finally subscribed today. I admire your can-do attitude and look forward to more👍

[@saveitforparts]

Thanks! Glad you like them :-)

[@Superkuh2]

Really nice result from something you threw together using random parts and other peoples code not meant for those parts. You are an expert glue-er of systems.

[@daveys]

5:20 - Those Ikegami cameras were pretty good in their day. I recall that they were low light day/night too.

[@icxcarnie]

16:40 As opposed to re-entering the entire command when you forget to enter with Sudo, you can do “sudo !!” (where the double exclamation mark is the syntax for history substitution)

[@sachasmart7139]

Loving your stuff man. Got a SDR dongle coming this weekend. Your humour gets me rolling

[@mariaviklund4546]

For the display you add a i2c board and drive it with just two wires (SDA, SCL) and please try to replace the motor relays with a Mosfet board or something, because you will burn those relays out if they are ratteling like that all the time while tracking. Very interesting project never the less! :)

[@saveitforparts]

I have a follow-up video somewhere on here where I did some of those updates.

[@4DRC_]

Use a little screw driver or similar to open up those relay screw terminals once you’ve unscrewed the screw. Sometimes the screw will come up but the little flap holding the wire will stay in place. Then you can get a decent thicc wire in there.

[@jmac217x]

Imagine being the next guy walking into Ax-Man lol

[@andysmith1706]

Hello from the UK! 😀 Love checking out your random projects. Very cool! Especially managing to pull in data from the weather satellites. I use a few motorised dishes to watch TV from across Europe here, but even they only just track the geostationary satellites. Using the CCTV motors to track the whole sky is very clever. I'm planning to pick up and add a C-band LNB to my setup at some point, but they're pretty expensive as we only really use Ku-band over here. It's surprising how little free to air TV you guys get over in North America, though. There's 1000s in Europe, but sadly satellite TV seems to slowly be dying off in favour of Internet based stuff... Keep up the good work on the channel! 👍

[@saveitforparts]

Thanks! Yeah I'm jealous of the free sat options you guys have!

[@Peter_S_]

You can reduce the LCD's pin needs to one by adding a "serial LCD backpack" board to the display and then accessing it using a serial port. These backpack boards are available from all the usual suspects, foreign and domestic.

[@adslf874yti3q7u4hf83]

This is very cool, but I gotta say: For reliability you'll want to swap out those relays for solid-state ones before they weld themselves open/closed after so many fast cycles.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

@ 0:54 Wow nice set-up. I see you've integrated a..............Oh look fish!! 😳

[@kjchaifisch]

Giving me a bunch of ideas to build my own rotor from scratch! My biggest issue is figuring out a mounting system that works well with the dual-axis motion I want, the enclosure / mounting system you have here seems pretty great but maybe a bit tough for me to recreate in Fusion and later manufacture, not gonna stop me from trying though :P

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

the clickity clack of the relays is so funny to me XD maybe you could dump the data to a tape too ;) Fantastic video!!

[@aquahoodjd]

Okay so you have access to a large city somewhere nearby you because that kind of stuff isn't just available. .😊 I'm so jealous and I figured out when you put your stickers on that you're in Canada and I spent some of the best times of my life in northwestern Ontario at Lake of the Wood near Kanora. I had to return quickly to my home as my ex-wife her grandmother was dying and I needed to go with her to her family. Along the way, I was in a boat by the through an area called The Labyrinth in the middle of the absolute night time and I looked up and I saw for the first time in my life an incredible display of the Aurora Borealis! I had never seen it that profound and had to ask the young man who was with me what that was as we were taking turns with a big flashlight and driving the small boat back to Kanora. If I had a radon as you do, I would try and find a landowner and the higher elevation of my State (Canton) if I have an alarm me to construct it and put what you have there inside and connect to it via cellular hotspot and SSH. Can you imagine how nice the signals would be on a good atmospheric day at about 2,500m? Add to that, during the summer time in the Alps, it's is oftentimes very dry and clear. If I tried to buy any of your equipment on the parts forum we have here it would cost 10 times what you pay. 😢. Anyway I think what you're doing is pretty cool and you have a unique opportunity as well as access to parts to really pursue what you're doing and even take it to a professional level as you really have a natural ability. I would suggest that you take every opportunity to keep in contact with the people who gave you the Raydome and see where that leads! 🇨🇦😁 I'm 🇨🇭&🇺🇲 - you made a very profound statement about reusing an upcycling!

[@saveitforparts]

I live in Minnesota, not Canada, but we got the radome from Canada and they gave me some stickers :-)

[@processagent5095]

Battin' a thousand. Like the 1/4 scale monorail model shell for multi-level outdoor hoarding.

[@iknowdawae893]

few tips: > make sure the relays have their own 5V supply. you said the arduino kicks itself off the USB and resetting - thats the arduino's reaction to overcurrent/overload. > the 'not enough pins to drive an LCD' problem - consider using an 'I2C' display. it only uses two pins for data and - combined with a arduino library and a instructables guide can be quite simple

[@Heimbasteln]

I would recommend using wire ferrules with those cheap screw terminals if you are using stranded wire. Wago connectors are also very nice to use for prototyping or if you want to easily rewire something later on. (I think the clear ones with the levers are the best general purpose ones)

[@copperthedergy]

With the arduino, youve probably already started using the I2C protocol with that gyroscope youve got there, and you should know that there are small screens that are capable the same such protocol, instead of having to wire up a dozen or so wires for those older ones. I2C is naturally a multi device bus, and you need only a separate pin for chip selection (can still only do one thing at a time, maybe try ESP32 for a potential wireless solution + multicore + more pins?)

[@TheChefmike66]

This was all really great, but the "Eureka!" moment for me was seeing small cat trees used for staging multiple electronics. I love your channel, brother.

[@saveitforparts]

The cats are going to sit on the keyboard either way, so I might as well make it convenient for them 😂

[@blarque]

so in terms of arduino: the pro model uses 3.3Volt and the model you're using is using 5 Volts for pins, so tbh that's actually quite helpful for you. for motorcontrol: the triac board you're searching for are called "Solid State Relais", they're basically just triacs with some extra parts in a nice housing. the h-bridges mentioned won't do you any good because they're designed for driving DC motors. If you lose serial connection to your arduino the way you mentioned (it having a new /dev/ttyACM name) then something is causing your arduino to reset, so either there is something happening to your digital ground, the power supply cannot keep up, the snubber diodes on the relais failed or the micro actually manages usb itself so it might be the code?

[@saveitforparts]

I think it's the power, the pro micro has a pin to solder for more consistent 5v out, but the micro seemed to be missing that jumper.

[@blarque]

@@saveitforparts i misspoke there, what i was trying to say was: the micro considers 5 v levels as high whereas the pro mini uses 3.3

[@chocolateandy1963]

Brilliantly brilliant. So much inspiration for projects I would like to do.

[@markjarrodhughes]

Can you imagine what would have happened if Gabe took a different career path and chose mechatronics? We'd have skynet by now! Keep up the work good sir!

[@zyeborm]

hey mate, for your screw terminals. You're over twisting your wire somewhat. Everyone has already mentioned ferules, I will say you can get ferules that are designed for putting 2 wires in to join them though like that jumper you made there. Can be handy. You'll really want to go to those triacs rather than the relays if you can. They will burn out pretty quick at that duty cycle, sounds cool though. Perhaps look at solid state relays? they can be driven off your arduino direct and can be cheap enough if you don't want to roll your own. Just be aware that there's DC and AC SSR's and you can't use them interchangeably Put some fuses in your motor lines, if the relay welds it'll leave the motor driving until it stalls and then something bad may happen, probably less of an issue with those AC motors but still. I say to put the fuse in the motor line so you can size it pretty close to the actual motor current with a slow blow fuse. Hit me up if you want a hand with the arduino or electronicsy stuff.

[@247hinkey]

I2C Liquid Crystal Display only uses 2 pins.

[@JDWatkins]

Dude, I love these projects. Keep them coming. I have to admit though, I am a bit jealous of the freebies you manage to get lol 😆 Here in central AB, there is no place to source goodies like that. Everything has to be brought in. It is real hard on the pension to keep playing with these projects. Now and hen, the goodies cone in. That's where your channel comes in. The tinkering you do is awesome!!! Drop me a line if you feel the need to clear out some of those goodies lol

[@LudoTheGreat]

Fav new channel. You're videos are awesome, though my wife won't think so now that I'm going to start filling every empty space on our property with junk electronics and satellite dishes. Keep the videos coming, man. Appreciate what you are doing. It's a lot of fun!